Mia Randall aka Ashley Taylor (Kim Matula) is the main villainess of "Nevada v. Doug the Mule", episode 1.14 of The Defenders (airdate February 11, 2011). Little is revealed about Mia's backstory, other than she was a conspirator in a drug smuggling operation, which had her seducing lonely men into unknowingly transporting drugs from Mexico into the United States (working under an unnamed boss). Prior to the episode's events, Mia had pulled her scheme on three men, resulting in all of them being arrested on charges of drug trafficking.
The episode's events revealed her latest victim as UNLV student Doug Christensen, with Mia having been hired by Doug's father (believing Mia was simply a prostitute) to show his son a good time while he was in Mexico. After their time together, during which Mia convinced Doug to do cocaine with her, the evil Mia convinced Doug to drive her car back to the States for her, claiming she had seen her ex and was afraid he would follow her home.
Unbeknownst to Doug, the car had 30 bricks of cocaine hidden inside it, with the drugs being found when Doug was pulled over for running a red light. Like Mia's past victims, Doug was arrested, with lawyers Nick Morelli and Pete Kaczmarek taking his case and convincing Doug that Mia, rather than her non-existant ex, had been behind the scam. After Nick contacted DEA agent Tony Velasco, the trio uncovered that Mia's status as a serial con artist/drug trafficker and tracked her down to the Hotel Playa Azul; the same location Doug's father hired her through. Once there, Nick posed as a man Mia would likely target, with the police listening in on the set-up.
The plan worked, with Mia approaching Nick and spending the night dancing with him before returning to his hotel room, where the two began passionately kissing before the police raided the room. Mia was taken into custody, and accepted a deal (off-screen); agreeing to testify to the fact that Doug had no idea about the drugs she'd stashed in her car in exchange for immunity. Mia also revealed her true name as Ashley Taylor and confessed to having caused three other men to go to prison for drug trafficking charges, seemingly remorseless over her past crimes. Despite DA Ward's attempts to discredit Mia/Ashley's testimony, Doug was found innocent of intentionally smuggling drugs, with Mia/Ashley likely receiving the immunity she was promised.
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